Arjan tapped a few buttons on her slate, 'We can make the trip, it's only 4100 kilometers give or take, from here to Pretoria. We can unfold the solars, put everything but the drive in low power mode, and there should be enough recharge stations between here and there if you want to drive it. If we drive 16 hours a day, at 50km an hour, we could make it in, say 6 days.'

'A shuttle could do it in four hours', Ubutsu said, his voice had an odd note to it. 'No one knows that these units are missing or WMDs, and thus far no one here has been blacklisted by AfroZone security. 'Well, you all have security tags, and no one will let you on a civilian skyliner, but you can all still get into the aerodrome for a private chartered flight.'

"They did well to give me a security tag - I *am* a security hazard. It feels so good to be appreciated."Blue put on a pleasant voice fit for a stewardess: "Please make sure you don't have any Blue of 100 mL or more in your carry-on luggage. All Blues of less than 100 mL must be contained in pressure-proof containers."Smirk."Better give the good professor a sufficiently intriguing call that would make him receive us, yet has to be cryptic enough to prevent him from calling security right away. These Women of Magical Delights could elicit a knee-jerk reaction anywhere, even from the enlightened."Oh, look at what the Blue dragged in."Jerome, your secure uplinks, we could use them to call Vanderbilt without giving away our location, yes?"

Logged

"Captain, the buttocks are moving from the pink into the red and purple spectrum! We cannot maintain this rate of spanking any longer!"

"They are as good as I can make them. Lots of redirection. First leg is the riskiest - its the one that can give our location. Lets get away from here first. Say, 10 klicks. Away from the scavengers at least."

And drive they did, away from the crash site, checking the level of background noise via technology and their respective senses, until they found a place with sufficient noise to hide them.The somewhat grainy image and wavering signal would add a little flair to the message, Blue was sure."Hello there, good professor. This is your marvelous Blue, ever fondly remembering our cooperation, and ever benefiting from your lessons. My associates and I have run across some intriguing examples of engineering in our adventures, and believe you may be the only one with sufficient expertise we can approach discreetly. Now, I am morally obliged to inform you that there may be some degree of danger involved, which is likely offset by the uniqueness of the find. I rather would not disclose more at this time - so, please, if you would be so kind as to receive us in the near future, please let us know. Yours truly, Tel'Issaire Witherwind, a.k.a. Blue."The neo-ethnic took a deep breath."So, how was I?"

Logged

"Captain, the buttocks are moving from the pink into the red and purple spectrum! We cannot maintain this rate of spanking any longer!"

The professor responds to Blue with a short cryptic message, a bizarre series of flash cards that represent various actions and abilities within the game that Blue was reverse engineered from, concluding with what looked like a location card, one that Blue was familiar with, a park near the professor's house. But the card before it was a Dragon Sense card, something that indicated danger was close, like a dragon, hovering overhead.

Sarcastically: "Oh, when will this world run out of dangers?"With grave solemnity: "Never."With surprised disappointment: "Awww.""So, the deal is this - the professor is willing, but apparently danger looms, whether related or unrelated to our entourage, he did not tell. Also, this build is not possible in the game since the early beta. It must be an elaborate ruse!"Blue pondered."Summon Succubus indicates either a devious conniving foe, but could also mean an abducted mistress, given how it's followed by Seraph-Feather Pentagram.""The arcane build of the character implicates high damage output at medium range - see? Disintegrate, Star-Fall spray, Improved Magic Missile. Together with Aggressive Mirror Image, this could mean some mercenary outfit or SWAT team.""The Link Minds ability implicates the enemy has some sort of information network in place, could be technological, arcane, or psi. We better disrupt or infiltrate that.""The Wizard Academy Park is obviously our meeting point due to the presence of a Citadel Stone in the image. That's where the home base is.""And the Mana Strudel indicates there will be cake if we make it. I certainly do love cake.""I can't make sense of the Ivory Tower and this lush "Collapsed Cavern" location that provides both green and black mana."

Logged

"Captain, the buttocks are moving from the pink into the red and purple spectrum! We cannot maintain this rate of spanking any longer!"

Jerome after seeing the messages, and not being the slightest bit inclined to Divination, made a point of checking his sensors vertically as well. Perhaps the Dragon represented a starship. He also sent a query, heavily encoded, for whatever flight path info he could get on the south end of Africa.

"I'm looking forward to some cake too, Blue. And not terribly interested in meeting that Dragon. Lets get out of here. Captain?"

Jerome's eyes widened as his query bounced back SAUR flightspace, especially above Pretoria. There were no shortage of ships above the city, this was normal, but it seemed that during their time along the Sea of Victoria things had escalated along the AfroZone Federation and the SAUR. The dragon was easy to see, the antique of the USS General George Washington, a former Federation Battlestar that was captured by Amerikka Command. The warship, decked in it's retro-patriotic paint scheme hung over the city.

If that terrorist warship was perched over the city, that meant that the rest of the Revolutionary Guard, and the Amerikka Command Columbia Battlegroup were also present.

Getting into Pretoria airspace would be easy, getting a shot out of Federation airspace would be more difficult. It would be easier to pick up a Silk Road sourced mag-rail craft (magnetic hovercraft made out of an old vehicle like a tanker truck or a bus), which would be much faster than taking the turbo-tank all the way down, following roads and checkpoints.

Blue shrugged. During the previous stay in Pretoria, the heavy presence of Amerikka Command was palpable, but not overbearing. Abundance of handsome men in uniform was a big plus, too. "It doesn't have to be all bad - I mean, they're sticking it to the megacorps, refusing to be trod upon, and what recourse does one have when all the journalists, bureaucrats, and lawyers are in the corporations' pockets as deep as they can get, but to reach for a trusty rifle? Or battleship, whatever is handy. You have to admit, the GG Washington does have a certain retro-futuristic flair, too."Blue saddened suddenly. "The main drawback is that I suck at goose-stepping, hooves and all. For me, it's all clippity-clop, prancing along. A clippity-clop with the fearsome fury of the forest fawn, if need be, but no marching."The neo-ethnic perked up, then. "The Amerikkans are highly visible, though, and we may be unnoticed in the noise they create. So, Jerome, what were you saying, which vehicle would be best hidden among the patriotic hustle? Could we put some flags on the tank? Screaming eagles? Pin-up glamour paintings of scantily clad lasses? Or do we hide the tank, and hop into another sufficiently covert vehicle?"

"Also, let's sweep this thing for tracers and bugs."

Logged

"Captain, the buttocks are moving from the pink into the red and purple spectrum! We cannot maintain this rate of spanking any longer!"

'I know the smugglers roads into South Africa, and you are very luck, I have friends in the military down there. We should be able to get through. We are not, as you say, Federales? Arjan laughs. Being on a Federation watch list might make it easier to get in if we are stopped.

She shows on a holomap the path they will roughly take, and where they will have to stop overnight and repaint the tank into SAUR colors. She says finding the paint wont be hard and that she has stencils to make it look like they are working mercenary logistics

"Smugglers? I knew a few too! Are the Dusters still in operation? They used to drive on the mountain roads in the heaviest of dust storms, to hide their passage. Insane bunch of adrenaline junkies, if you ask me (or anyone else), but you have to admire their audacity! And how about Double-Pirate? Lost one eye, then the other, had two parrots, and in the end had cyberware put in the ol' sockets, and the parrots' vision wired to a virtual HUD."Sigh."Smugglers, the salt of the earth. Better than Santa."

"Anyways, let's roll. I'll help with the painting. This Blue is an artistic one, capable of using colours beside blue too."

Logged

"Captain, the buttocks are moving from the pink into the red and purple spectrum! We cannot maintain this rate of spanking any longer!"

Jerome sat down to reset the firmware on Jerry, using a backup of the recently departed Tom. At least Tom's tics were more known. He nudged the Initiative module down a touch. Less chance for the bot to get 'ideas' if a little slower on the draw.

The drive south isn't particularly exciting, but the turbo tank makes good time. Arjan reveals that she did have a small generator, and hooks it up to improve their overland speed. It cuts down on stopping at charging stations.

'I am not a fan of using this, is more for emergencies than convenience. It came out of a Federale war machine, I plug it in and it hums and makes power, most of the time. Sometimes, I plug it in, and I have no power but I have migraine and nightmares,' she says.

They pick up the smuggler's dirt roads, and make even better time. They cross a ridge after several days travel, and they cross the border into the SAUR, and predictably, they find the first of the SAURi smuggler cities.

The city has a low mud brick wall, and the buildings inside are all shackled together out of wrecked ships, busted cargo haulers, and the like.

A banner flutters on the breeze, a hand made advert for the tavern and cantina inside the hulk of the Carlsbad, the sign is green and black

Blue sighed. "I better not show myself at all - I look expensive. Do give me a call if you need assistance, and please listen for interesting rumours while you're out. The folks here listen to the grapewine closely."

Logged

"Captain, the buttocks are moving from the pink into the red and purple spectrum! We cannot maintain this rate of spanking any longer!"

The Turbotank was one of the larger vehicles trundling through the Smuggler encampment, but it was by no means the strangest, or the most obtrusive. A number of mercenaries made the ramshackle city their base of operations, so there were a number of frankenmechs that could be seen, along with more exotic outfits looking for work, hoverbike cavalry, strider infantry units, men leading rough looking droids on chains like some archaic chain gang. The charging station was near the Carlsbad's wreck.

Blue felt like there should be some bazaar in this place where there were wonders of Old Africa to be found, and fragments of songs hummed just out of earshot.

Arjan oversaw the recharging of the tank, as well as replenishing some of their supplies. Pretoria wasn't far, but that was no reason to skimp on food and water tablets.

Jerome likewise had more to do skimming the net for news, and the only thing that pinged back on his search was a news story about Adeaze's body being recovered from the wreck of a shuttle, and that it came as a tragic end to an ongoing investigation involving Mx Adeaze and her potential involvement with questionable technology and acquisitions.

"Found her already? Then they already know, whoever >they< may be, that we set the ladies and kinds free (almost, but for the sake of poetry, stay with me), or absconded with them completely."Blue rolled over on the mattress, sneaked up to Jerome during his browsing, and whispered close to his ear: "Apocalyptic jubilee!" Then, falling back, the neoethnic complained much like a petulant child: "Booooooooored."

Logged

"Captain, the buttocks are moving from the pink into the red and purple spectrum! We cannot maintain this rate of spanking any longer!"

It seemed too much of a coincidence that they found her so quickly. He glanced over at the silent Obutsu for a moment, thinking.

"Yeah, they know. We should have blown up the wreckage when we left to cover that. " Jerome accessed another system, and an AI agent began to investigate the investigators. Who was sniffing around about Adeaze? What was another dangerous question now.

Jerome took care to make sure he put the tablet in a faraday-cage. Nothing too sophisticated - basically a metal container with a bit of superconducting ceramic bands. He also turned off its wireless capabilitiesFinally, he took a small command-detonate unit, took its fragmentation shroud and put it in the container. He set it to biometric safe and armed it with a 2 second timer then closed it.

"Don't open this." he said to Blue.

Jerome was now certain there was more on the device then he could access. It would take a better hacker then him to get past the protections. She had been mixed in with powerful people.

"Don't fear, I'm thoroughly medicated, all in the green, a level-headed common-sense machine."Blue smiled."For the literal-minded: I have no desire to open a container rigged to explode. I like my hands and face too much."Rolling around on the mattress, Blue contemplated a tangle of lint and mused:"Where is Adeaze originally from, anyway?"

Logged

"Captain, the buttocks are moving from the pink into the red and purple spectrum! We cannot maintain this rate of spanking any longer!"

Obutsu looked up, 'Adeaze was originally from Goma, Tower three, also known as Goma Gardens.' He hesitated, and looked away. 'She transferred to Kampala three years ago to become an arco comptroller for Kampala Tower Two. She was the head of the Public Security Department there, with command over 350 officers and three times as many support personnel.'

He paused again, physical mannerisms having fallen away. He stood and looked at Blue and Jerome. 'This is why I selected her to take possession of my mothers and children,' his voice lost all accent.

'So, I would rather not kill all of you to recover my property, my queens have roles yet left to play,' not quite Obutsu said

"Mothef*cking Beefcake Jesus and his twelve F*ckpostles! Would it really be so difficult for you people to simply pay us off instead of threatening us with death? One time?"Blue adopted the best possible 'strict teacher' pose, and continued: "Really. I am a mercenary who kills people for sh!ts and giggles. I've got no arbitrary moral code that would keep me from selling the WMDs, or 'Wenches of Mammary Distraction' back to you. I picked them up, unharmed, haven't f*cked a single one! Don't you think this deserves credit? You could have had a friend in me, enthusiastic, for money; for the occasional hug or cuddle, I'd make your foes into a puddle, or pancake, if you prefer those. I can even be less verbose. Maaaaaybe."Shrug. Pointing finger of accusation points accusingly at Matos."But what do you do? 'Surrender or die, hurr durr.' So smart. Really. This is why I bomb people. Earth to whoever is driving zombie Matos right now, a) you somehow make him seem even more stuck up, so kudos to that, b) can we for once talk like civilised black ops operatives? It's nowhere near guaranteed that you succeed, and it may be that you lose your hacked cyborg here, whatever mooks are coming our way, and the way the snowball rolls, who knows what will end up caught in its ever widening path."Huff."Fresh start? Hello, this is Blue, the name, not the colour. Who may I be talking to? How can we help each other?"

If he tries something, I'll wallop him with a can of telekinetic whoop-@$$. Pulling attention from Jerome, and trying to get the dudes/dudettes on the other side of the line to give up some info. Insulting Jesus may give Matos some bonus to snap out of it, too.

Logged

"Captain, the buttocks are moving from the pink into the red and purple spectrum! We cannot maintain this rate of spanking any longer!"

'You choice of words and inflection are as colorful as your name,' Almost Matos said. 'But I am not a person, nor a group of people, and I can only extrapolate how operatives will act when presented with such options. Your kin has a self-sacrificing and altruistic streak that appears at the most inconvenient times, times such as these.'

'But yes, let us converse as professionals, I wish for my identity to remain... clandestine... the less is known of me, the... more content... I am. I want the mobile mines, especially units 0013, 0014, and 0017. These contain ...advanced... weapons. I wish to claim these weapons for my own ...interests.. If you bring these droids to the rendezvous point safely, I will compensate you according to the number that arrive. I only care about the three units mentioned. The juvenile shrikes are completely expendable. The other 'Mothers' I will pay bonuses for each that arrives undamaged. For each of the three units I desire that is damaged, lost, or destroyed, I will reduce your reward proportionately.'